Yearly Reflection and Mental Habits

It's that time of the year when people review and plan for the upcoming year. Instead of the usual format ("what went right, what went wrong, etc.), here is a suggestion for a different kind of yearly reflection.

Yes, it is still a good idea to reflect on the past year and plan the next one. But a better to-do list is the bottleneck only if you perfectly executed last year's list. Otherwise, the real bottlenecks are what prevented execution in the first place: mental habits, lack of clarity, and similar issues.

Just as physical habits are our automatic actions in response to cues (a stimulus, a time of day, etc.), mental habits are our automatic thoughts in response to cues. In the case of yearly goals, the key question is what your mental habits are regarding them, in other words, what thoughts come to mind when you read one of your goals, and whether they are positive or negative. For example, as long as your mental habit in response to "joining the gym" is "how uncomfortable will it be" rather than "how nice will my body look," that goal is likely to produce either no action or ineffective, half-hearted action, such as joining the gym but not going, or going but without making enough effort to trigger the physiological processes that would produce the gains that you're looking for.

The fact that willpower is a good solution when the bottleneck is physical, such as fatigue or lack of time, should not mislead us into thinking it works equally well when the bottleneck is lack of clarity or a mental habit that triggers negative thoughts (how unpleasant something will be, or how unlikely success is) and puts us in a mental state from which effective action is almost impossible. In that state, only inaction or half-hearted action can emerge. A better approach is to acknowledge that these mixed thoughts about your objectives are themselves the bottleneck, and to focus on solving that.

Solving this cannot occur through sheer willpower. It must start with noticing your thoughts about your goals, and how those thoughts place you in a mental state of fatigue, lack of confidence, or a tendency to look for shortcuts or alternatives. It also requires fully acknowledging that, while you are in such a mental state, effective action will be hard, if not impossible.

The next step is often specific to the individual and the goal. In many cases, however, fully understanding and acknowledging this dynamic and how it imprisons you is enough for the mental habits to change, or at least to show you the initial steps in that direction. But the key is that "fully." Failing to recognize it or believing it is insignificant usually keeps us stuck.

I hope this helps you as much as it helped me.